Today I was given the news that an elderly woman in our village has passed. Eskimo funerals are untypical when compared to typical American ones. The body remains in the home of the deceased' family for three days. They dress and wash the body themselves as everyone around town continuously visits with condolences. After the three days of mourning have passed, they hold a "typical" funeral like service and bury the body. Although I have never been to a funeral, I am quite aware of the traditions involved. Unfortunately they are common here. This funeral no different from the rest. But the oddest part, for me, is last night I had a dream. A vague dream I don't remember in any detail. But a passing thought forgotten yet still aware in my mind. I was speaking to an elderly Yup'ik woman. She taught me the many ways of the life she lived. And a part of me, in the most paranormal of ways, wonders if the woman who spoke to me subconciously was the same whom I learned of leaving this world this morning. If I only I would have caught her name.
